EUR value falls as UK hold interest rate at 0.25%

Getting the best exchange rate can be achieved by understanding what is driving rates and the service of a specialist currency broker. Below are movements in just a month affecting Euro rates when buying £200,000:

Currency Pair

% Change

Difference on £200,000

GBP/EUR

3.76%

€8,806

EU receives poor Trade Balance figures for April

Yesterday morning the Euro came under pressure following from the release of worse than expected Trade balance figures for April for the Eurozone, showing the difference between Imports and Exports of all goods and services. This was then made worse by the news from the UK that, although rates were still kept on hold, more members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to raise interest rates than were expected, and poses the question of ‘could a hike in the near future be on the cards’?

Although clients selling Euros to purchase Sterling have been treated to fantastic exchange rates since the results of the UK snap election last Friday, this combination of news saw EUR/GBP fall by almost a cent in only 20 minutes.

Second round of French Parliamentary Elections on Sunday

On Sunday, French citizens will go to the polling stations once again for the second round of Parliamentary Elections, with the results being announced that evening. Although it is widely expected that Macron will win the support needed to carry through his promises from his campaign, if he doesn’t live up to expectations I would expect a sharp fall for the value of the Euro.

We only need to look back to last week when, although it was expected that Theresa May and the Conservatives would win a majority in the UK elections, GBP fell by 2.5 cents on the news that she didn’t fulfil expectation, or to put into monetary terms, making a €200,000 purchase over £3,600 more expensive. If nothing else, the last year has taught us to be prepared for the unexpected!

As this announcement is outside of trading hours, clients may look to take advantage of our Stop Loss or Limit Order contract options which will allow us to purchase your currency at a rate determined by you, automatically as soon as it reaches this level.

Thank you for reading my Euro currency report, if you have any questions about Euro exchange rates I would be more than happy to discuss them – you can contact me with any queries here.

C. Meineke

Exchange rates on this page are interbank rates and indicate where the market is trading to show the performance of a currency pair. They are not indicative of the rates which we offer. The information on this web site is provided free of charge for information purposes only. It does not constitute advice to any person on any matter. Foreign Currency Direct plc. ("FCD") makes every reasonable effort to ensure that this information is accurate and complete but assumes no responsibility for and gives no warranty with regard to the same.